Yesterday I went to the Soho Food Feast in St Anne’s Church Gardens in Wardour Street with some friends. It was the first one and I hope it won’t be the last. Clearly a lot of thought and organisation went into it. The purpose was to raise funds for the Soho Parish School. From my primary school days these sorts of events were to raise money for “nice to have” equipment. Yesterday’s event was to raise funds to pay for school lunches and after school clubs. The school is facing further staffing cuts including one-third of its teaching assistant hours this year and has lost 80% of its maintenance budget. Education in the post-modern world! Goes to show what a long way we’ve come from my day at primary school when the staffing and maintenance was certainly covered by the state and fund raising fetes bought some extra books for the library! Stalls at the Soho Food Feast were provided by a lot of famous central London eateries including The Ivy, Brindisa, Arbutus, Polpo, Terroirs, The Wright Brothers who very generously supported such a good cause. Two of my favourite dishes sampled at the feast: Moroccan Lamb Stew from The Groucho and Ricotta and Sour Cherry gelato from Gelupo. Hits with my friends included oysters from The Wright Brothers and noodles from Kopapa.
Church Ruins Photo
On Saturday’s walk through the Kent countryside we stopped at the ruins of St Mary’s church at Little Chart for lunch. The original structure was built around 1200 and added to over the next couple of hundred years. It was finally reduced to rubble by a German Doodlebug in 1944.
Church of Clown
I’ve been to church twice recently and while both events were very different in location and style, they were similar in their blend of prayers and performance. In December I attended a Christmas Carol Service by the Friends of Columbia for Social Aid featuring a performance by Venezuelan pianist Clara Rodríguez and today I went to the Joseph Grimaldi annual memorial service featuring some clowning by Mattie, Sonny and Rainbow, Susie Oddball, Salvo, Franco et al. The former service took place in St Martins in the Fields with music by composer Ariel Ramirez. The latter took place in the tiny Church of the Holy Trinity in Dalston with kids sitting in the front pews laughing at the clowns’ antics during their short performance interludes. The congregational clowns appeared in Sunday hats that perhaps wouldn’t look out of place at Ascot. We then retired to the church hall for some fine clowning and generous posing by the clowns for the many photographers. Visit the clown gallery to see more pictures of Sonny and Rainbow, Susie Oddball, Mattie and others. The amazing 92 years young Garibaldi, the oldest member of Clowns International, features on the clown page of this website and Franco is the clown featured in this post.
